Eleven years after she shared a video that touted conspiracy theories concerning the Sandy Hook Elementary School capturing, former UFC champion Ronda Rousey has issued an apology.
In a prolonged assertion shared to X early Friday morning, Rousey mentioned she’s regretted the publish “every day of my life.”
In January 2013, a couple of month after a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and killed 20 kids and 6 staffers, Rousey shared a YouTube video to X (then Twitter) that forged doubt on the capturing. Rousey posted a hyperlink to the video and wrote, “Extremely interesting, and must-watch.”
“I didn’t even believe it, but was so horrified at the truth that I was grasping for an alternative fiction to cling to instead,” Rousey mentioned in her apology. “I quickly realized my mistake and took it down, but the damage was done.”
The 37-year-old professional wrestler mentioned she’s drafted the apology a number of instances over the past decade, however has by no means had the braveness to talk out till now. One such try to apologize was in her current memoir, Our Fight, however Rousey mentioned her writer “begged” to take away it, “saying it would overshadow everything else and do more harm than good.”
Rousey’s hesitancy to apologize was additionally partly on account of worry that calling consideration to the video would enhance the attain of the conspiracy theories, and would “selfishly, inform even more people I was ignorant, self absorbed and tone deaf enough to share one in the first place.”
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“But honestly, I deserve to be hated, labeled, detested, resented and worse for it,” Rousey wrote. “I deserve to lose out on every opportunity, I should have been canceled, I would have deserved it. I still do.”
In bolded textual content, Rousey continued: “I apologize that this came 11 years too late, but to those affected by the Sandy Hook massacre, from the bottom of my heart and depth of my soul I am so so sorry for the hurt I caused. I can’t even begin to imagine the pain you’ve endured and words cannot describe how thoroughly remorseful and ashamed I am of myself for contributing it.”
Rousey then addressed others who could consider conspiracy theories, or as she mentioned, individuals who have “fallen down the black hole of bulls—.”
“It doesn’t make you edgy, or an independent thinker, you’re not doing your due diligence entertaining every possibility by digesting these conspiracies,” Rousey wrote. “They will only make you feel powerless, afraid, miserable and isolated. You’re doing nothing but hurting others and yourself.”
She concluded, “Regardless of how many bridges you’ve burned over it, stop digging yourself a deeper hole, don’t get wrapped up in the sunk cost fallacy, no matter how long you’ve gone down the wrong road, you should still turn back.”
In the times after she shared the YouTube conspiracy video in 2013, Rousey did challenge a short apology.
“I never meant to insult or hurt anyone, sorry if anyone was offended,” the wrestler wrote on social media. “It was not my intention in the least.”
She didn’t make point out of the publish once more after that.
Rousey’s most up-to-date apology was met with common positivity on-line, with many commenting the assertion was “better late than never.”
“Never been a Ronda fan, but I can respect this. If you cannot hold yourself accountable, how can anybody expect to grow,” one consumer wrote on X.
“This is so clearly heartfelt that it’s hard to imagine anyone questioning it,” one other commented. “People make mistakes. You clearly did. You realized yours quickly and not because of backlash.”
Other social media customers speculated Rousey’s apology was triggered by a current AMA, or “Ask Me Anything” session, on Reddit that noticed the athlete inundated with questions on her preliminary posting of the video.
The Dec. 14, 2012, Sandy Hook college capturing is the second-deadliest college capturing to ever happen within the U.S., behind the 2007 capturing at Virginia Tech.
Unfounded conspiracy theories concerning the Sandy Hook bloodbath have circulated because it occurred, typically championed by controversial public figures like Infowars host Alex Jones.
Jones, who for years informed his viewers the capturing was a hoax, was sued by the members of the family of Sandy Hook victims and ordered to pay US$1.5 billion in 2022 for his false claims. The trial noticed harrowing testimony from members of the family, who mentioned they nonetheless handled intense harassment from conspiracy theorists.
A federal choose ordered the liquidation of Jones’ private property in June, however dismissed his firm’s separate chapter case.
Jones has since acknowledged that the Sandy Hook capturing did occur. Despite that, he’s frequently mentioned Democrats and the “deep state” are conspiring to close down his corporations and eradicate his proper to free speech.
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